Many medical breakthroughs - including those that unearthed Viagra, Quinine and Botox - have been made completely by accident, while scientists were searching for cures for another ailment entirely.

And it's happened again, this time when researchers at Cambridge University were looking for a cure for liver damage and accidentally created a cream they feel certain will be a powerful anti-ageing product.

MitoQ - which claims to soften the skin while lightening and actually reversing the signs of ageing - is a patented blend of unique ingredients, which scientists Mike Murphy and Rob Smith stumbled across while trying to find a cure for liver disease.

Scientists have discovered an anti-ageing cream while looking for a cure for liver damage

The pair's work culminated in the
discovery of a delivery system that floods cells with antioxidants -
health-giving molecules that inhibit oxygenation of cells - straight
into the mitochondria, the source of free radicals, which are
responsible for ageing and tissue damage.

Dr
Michael Murphy explains: 'Mitochondria are like batteries that provide
the energy that all of our cells need to operate and stay healthy,
including skin cells.

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'Antioxidants
are the body’s natural defense mechanism to combat free radicals, but
ageing happens because as we get older our bodies produce fewer
antioxidants and can’t fight free radicals as effectively. This is what
causes wrinkles and lines to appear.'

The
team claims: 'This is a major scientific breakthrough that enhances our
natural antioxidant capacity restoring our cells to optimal function.'

How MitoQ works on ageing skin

The MitoQ cream, left, and Dr Mike Murphy from Cambridge University, right, one of the scientists who made the discovery

Botox for lazy eyes and Viagra for angina: Other accidental medical discoveries

VIAGRA

Viagra was discovered while looking for angina medicine

Viagra began as a new treatment for angina, a heart condition that constricts the vessels that supply the heart with blood.

But when drug company Pfizer searched for something to relax blood vessels, the trials were disappointing.

Then, suddenly, trial volunteers began reporting the unusual side effect of erections.

Before the launch of Viagra in 1998 there was no oral treatment for erectile dysfunction, the only options were an injection or a prosthetic implant.

RITALIN

Ritalin was meant to cure adult depression

Methylphenidate - commonly known as Ritalin, a drug used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, ADHD - was only discovered by accident 50 years ago to treat adults with depression.

Even now new uses are being found for the drug. Scientists have found that Ritalin can also work as a cognitive enhancer, and if a person without ADHD takes it, it can make them brighter, boostingconcentration and cognition.

QUININE

Quinine, a remedy for malaria, was found in the Andes

History credits a South American Indian with being the first to find a medical application for quinine, after he accidentally ingested it while suffering a malarial fever in a jungle high in the Andes.

Desperately thirsty, he drank water from a pool beside a cinchona tree, whose bark indigenous people knew as quina-quina, and was thought to be poisonous.

His fever subsided and he brought news of the miracle tree back to his tribe, which began to use its bark to treat malaria.

BOTOX

Botox was discovered while hunting for a cure for eye-twitching

Dr Alastair Carruthers and his wife Jean discovered Botox in 1987 in his Vancouver dermatology practice.

Alastair split his time between surgery for skin cancer and cosmetic procedures.

He also shared his office with Jean, an eye doctor who treated pediatric disorders as well as adult conditions such as blepharospasm, an uncontrollable blinking and spasming of the eye and surrounding area.

The ailment was treated with a dilute solution of botulinum toxin, which temporarily paralyzes the spasming muscles.

One day a patient remarked that the injections seemed to cure spasming and also diminish wrinkles between eyes known as glabellar lines.

The couple took their discovery to conferences and Botox is now used all over the world.